Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Women and Girls "Preyed on as the Spoils of War" Sam Olukoya “They forcefully took us away and kept us like prisoners,” Lydia Musa, a former Boko Haram captive who was abducted at the age of 14 during an attack on her village in Gwoza, in Nigeria’s north eastern Borno State, tells IPS. Musa and two other underaged girls were captured and forced to marry Boko ... MORE > >

Against All Odds, Indigenous Villages Generate Their Own Energy in Guatemala Edgardo Ayala In the stifling heat, Diego Matom takes the bread trays out of the oven and carefully places them on wooden shelves, happy that his business has prospered since his village in northwest Guatemala began to generate its own electricity. And it managed to do so against all odds, facing down big ... MORE > >

Bleak Outlook for Press Freedom in West Africa Lahai J. Samboma When former footballer George Weah became president of Liberia in 2018, media practitioners felt they had in him a democrat who would champion media freedoms. “But we were mistaken,” journalist Henry Costa told IPS. Any objective assessment of the relationship between West Africa governments ... MORE > >

Privatization Promotes Collusion and Corruption Jomo Kwame Sundaram At the risk of reiterating what should be obvious, the question of private or public ownership is distinct from the issue of competition or market forces. Despite the misleading claim that privatization promotes competition, it is competition policy, not privatization, that promotes competition. ... MORE > >

Media Landscape Marked by “Climate of Fear” Tharanga Yakupitiyage Journalists around the world are increasingly seeing threats of violence, detention, and even death simply for doing their job, a new press index found. In the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has found a worrisome decline in media freedoms as toxic anti-press ... MORE > >

**UPDATED: Activists Spotlight Education for Development and Rights A. D. McKenzie “Communicate something to your partner in silence.” The pairs of strangers or acquaintances who received this instruction gesticulated, smiled, shook their heads, touched their hearts and otherwise tried to transmit a message. The exercise was meant to help diverse groups bridge communication ... MORE > >

Women in Ethiopia Still Struggle Despite Leadership in Government Bethlehem Mengistu Following 2018 elections in Ethiopia, a record-breaking number of women now hold leadership positions in the country's government. But women still struggle to rise up the ranks in other sectors. I am thrilled to witness the fantastic changes that have taken place in Ethiopia over the recent ... MORE > >

UN’s Empty Promises to World’s Indigenous Peoples Tupac Enrique Acosta The United Nations, as in so many other areas, gives lip service in support of Indigenous issues while lacking the political will and enforcement power over individual member states to comply with the protection of fundamental human rights for the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the ... MORE > >

Egypt’s Food Challenge: a Good Effort but Not Enough Maged Srour “Unfortunately the overall nutritional panorama of Egypt does not look well,” says Dr. Sara Diana Garduno Diaz, an expert concentrating on nutrition and biology at the American University of the Middle East. Diaz’s research focuses on dietary patterns and ethnic-associated risk factors for ... MORE > >

CORRECTED VERSION: World Bank Dispossessing Rural Poor Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury The World Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) project, launched in 2013, has sought agricultural reforms favouring the corporate sector. EBA was initially established to support the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, initiated by the G8 to promote private agricultural ... MORE > >